Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to determining a group owner amongst devices connected to a wireless network.
Description of Related Art
A wireless local area network (LAN) has the advantage over a wired network in that the devices connected to the LAN are free to operate within the network's range without being tethered to a wired connection. A wireless LAN system according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard may include an access point that operates as a base station and several other external devices that operate as slave devices, wherein the slave devices connect to the LAN via the access point. Thus, in the conventional LAN system, the base station operating as an access point and another external device operating as a slave device are necessary.
On the other hand, the Wi-Fi Direct standard specified by the Wi-Fi Alliance describes forming a wireless network amongst a plurality of devices that are connected directly. In other words, rather than accessing a wireless network via an access point, the plurality of devices that support Wi-Fi Direct can communicate directly with each of the devices in the network that also support Wi-Fi Direct.
In an exemplary Wi-Fi Direct network, each device on the network may exchange intent information indicating the respective device's priority as group owner of the network. The devices on the network may then negotiate group ownership by comparing intent values to determine which device has the highest corresponding intent value. The device with the highest intent value then becomes the group owner of the network.
There exists a method of constructing a Wi-Fi Direct network whereby an optimal terminal device becomes the group owner of the network at a time when the network is constructed. However, when another device is subsequently added to the network, the device that was originally the group owner may no longer be best suited in this role.